what To Do When You Are Giving Feedback So, if those are the rules on how to avoid being a bad reader, how do you go about being a good one? Start with the positive. A little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down. A student once told the class that she had two advisors. One she liked and did everything she recommended, the other she disliked and resisted everything she recommended Why? The student commented I realized that the reason I liked the one and disliked the other had nothing to do with the criticism itself. In fact, the one I disliked tended to have fewer critical things to say than the other But the advisor liked always started off enthusiastically, she always loved the paper thought it was a great project, was sure it would be published, and then would give me a long list of what was wrong with it. But because she had"bought in," because I felt like she had si naled she was on my side, I listened to her and I walked away feel encouraged. The other advisor always started off with the problems. It just felt so discouragin well, you've really got to work on your structure and you didn't cite these three you to cite and you really should learn APA style belte At the end, she would say, But, it's a very solid project and I think you are doing good work." By then, it just seemed like a lass off, bribery, like I was a little kid who could be bought off But why would she feel this way when the second advisor's criticisms weren't as wholesale as the first advisor? The student What made